Most high school milers run too many 400s. Short reps at goal pace feel like mile training, but the mile is mostly an aerobic race, and a miler who only does 400s comes apart on lap three. The mile workouts that make you faster cover both sides: threshold runs and longer intervals for the engine, goal pace and faster reps for the rhythm and the kick, all on top of easy running.
This is the shape of mile training, not a plan, so fit it around what your coach already has you doing.
Why does the mile need both kinds of work?
A 2021 review of world class 800m and 1500m training put the 1500, the closest event to the mile, at about 75 to 85 percent aerobic. So most of your race runs on the engine you build with easy miles and threshold work.
The other 15 to 25 percent is small, and it decides races. With 300 to go the whole field starts moving. You either have a gear left or you watch it happen. Goal pace work and short fast reps are what put that gear there.
The mile workouts worth your week
Threshold runs: hold the pace longer
Comfortably hard. Faster than easy, well below race effort. Run it as one steady run or as longer repeats with short rests, often called cruise intervals. It raises the pace you can hold before fatigue starts piling up, and that is exactly what lap three asks of you. If you've ever felt fine at 800 and then watched the pack slide away on the back straight, this is the session that fixes it.
VO2max intervals: raise the ceiling
4 to 7 x 800 to 1000m at roughly 3K to 10K pace, with 2 to 3 minutes of rest. Or 2 sets of 6 x 400m at the same effort. The 2021 review lists both as typical sessions for world class middle distance runners. They lift the top of your aerobic system, so mile pace uses less of what you have. For milers it's often the key aerobic session of the week.
6 x 600m at goal pace: learn the rhythm
Frank Horwill, the British coach behind the five pace system, used 6 x 600m at mile pace with 90 to 120 seconds of rest. A 600 is a lap and a half: long enough to feel like the race, short enough to keep your form. Run it at your goal lap and you stop guessing on race day.
It doubles as a fitness check. If the last two reps hold your goal lap without your form falling apart, that pace is yours. If they fade, the goal is a little ahead of your fitness for now.
The gear change: shift when you're tired
This one is from coach Mario Fraioli's The Morning Shakeout. Run 1 mile at 10K pace, then 3 sets of 3 x 400m, with 1 minute between 400s and 2.5 to 3 minutes between sets. The first set is at 5K pace, the second at 3K pace, the last at mile pace, so each set is about 4 to 5 seconds a lap quicker. The end of a mile asks you to change speed when you're already hurting. This workout is practice for exactly that.
Short fast reps and hill sprints: build the kick
8 x 200m at mile pace or a bit faster, with rest 2 to 3 times as long as each rep. Jack Daniels calls these repetition runs: 2 minutes or less, with enough rest to stay smooth. They make goal pace feel cheaper and leave you speed to spend with 200 to go.
Hill sprints do the same job for top speed. Run 6 to 8 of them, about 8 to 12 seconds each, all out up a steep hill. Walk down and rest fully. Small doses, done fresh.
What paces should you run?
Horwill's system has a rule of thumb: your pace per lap slows by about 4 seconds for faster runners, or 5 for slower ones, each time the race distance roughly doubles. So 800 pace is about 4 to 5 seconds a lap faster than your mile pace, and 3K pace about 4 to 5 seconds slower. Find your goal and you have targets for every session above.
All figures are seconds per 400m. If you race a full mile, your lap is about half a second faster than the 1600 lap. Our guide to the mile vs the 1600m has the exact splits for both, plus why the third lap decides the race.
How does a mile training week fit together?
World class middle distance runners do 2 to 4 hard sessions a week while building, according to the 2021 review. High school and college milers usually do fewer. A common pattern is 2 hard sessions a week, or 1 plus a race, with easy days in between. A week without a race might look like this:
- Monday: easy run, then hill sprints
- Tuesday: threshold run
- Wednesday: easy
- Thursday: 6 x 600m, VO2max intervals, the gear change or 200s, rotating week to week
- Friday: easy
- Saturday: a longer easy run
- Sunday: off or easy
In a race week, the race takes one of the hard slots. Keep the threshold day early in the week and let the rest of the week be easy and short.
Every hard day gets an easy day after it. That's where the fitness actually shows up.
How do you know the workouts are working?
Repeat 6 x 600m every few weeks with the same rest: if the reps come faster, or the same times feel smoother, you're getting fitter.
Watch lap three in races. When the aerobic work is landing, you stay in contact on the back straight instead of losing two meters you never get back.
And check your easy days. If they stop feeling easy, you're doing too much hard work, not too little.
When it's time to race for real, cut back. The 2021 review found about 1 week of taper is enough for middle distance runners: cut volume by about 40 to 60 percent and keep some race pace work so your legs remember the rhythm.
Mistakes that slow milers down
- Racing workouts. Hit the target times. Beating them by 3 seconds a rep turns a workout into a race and leaves nothing for the next session.
- Skipping the aerobic days. Threshold runs and longer intervals look boring next to 200s, and they're most of the race.
- Ramping up too fast. A 2008 study of novice runners found the popular 10 percent rule didn't lower injury rates, so there's no safe magic number. Build gradually, with your coach.
If you double in the 800, the speed side gets more weight. We broke that down in 800m workouts.
What to train in
Mile workouts are laps at full stride. Our running split shorts come in a 2.5 inch and a 4 inch inseam, and any 2 shorts get the 3rd free.
